Syndedeménos (Connected)

CHAPTER 10

After the name of Karen Aldrich had filled the news in various mass media one week ago, now it was Keenan Aldrich's turn to be in the public spotlight. But unlike the controversial news about watering a waitress on Karen’s birthday, there wasn’t even a single negative comment right now. Netizens also understand very well that they shouldn't be played around when it comes to someone's death.

Keenan Aldrich's face could be found on almost all television stations. News of the death of the eldest son of a tycoon, George Aldrich, has made the citizens of Bolero City into an uproar. Besides showing a photo of Keenan Aldrich taken from Keenan's personal social media, the media also informed about an accident that occurred near Silentfield Village. The police have confirmed that the vehicle that had caught fire after falling from the cliff belonged to Keenan Aldrich.

"...the accident was a single accident. From the analysis of the CCTV installed between the accident scene, no other vehicles passed through the road..."

"...the body of the victim of the accident cannot be autopsied because the whole car was burned down..."

News about Keenan Aldrich was very popular among young people. Not only among Ancient Eagle High School students, Keenan was also idolized by college students because of his appearance. Even in a digital graphic class majoring in interior design, there was a group of female students who were crying over Keenan's death throughout the course.

After the course started for ten minutes, there were already five students who had deliberately moved from their seats so as not to be disturbed by a group of students who were still crying over Keenan's death. A girl with short brown hair asked a friend sitting beside her to move as well as the others. But her friend refused.

"Come on… we'd better move out of here. They've been discussing all the Keenan Aldrich news they've watched on Theytube and the news they're discussing is getting more and more absurd."

"You move yourself. I don't want to move."

"Come on, Aquila…. I know you're not happy with this noise either."

The girl with long black hair who always wore a hat while on campus did not respond back when her name was called. Aquila looked straight at the screen illuminated by the projector as a medium for a lecturer to explain his course. Aquila didn't budge and let the friend on her left exhale loudly because she was so stubborn to stay in her seat.

Although Aquila's eyes only shifted from the monitor screen to the book on her desk, her hearing was focused on the noise that was happening to her right. Aquila's focus was not on the information given by the lecturer in front of the class, but on the information about Keenan Aldrich's death that was discussed by a group of students. Female student group which had been noisy from the beginning of the lecture.

"Have you seen the video about Sean Kentaro? He said Keenan had called him at night."

"Yeah… even Keenan already knew that something was going to happen to him… sob… how come he died at such a young age… sob...”

"Has there been any news about Karen? Has she regained consciousness? After hearing her brother died she immediately fainted and was rushed to the hospital."

"You know yourself… sob… Sean said that Keenan went to his sister's place because he wanted to reassure himself that his sister was fine… sob... Karen would not be able to accept the loss of an older brother who was as caring as Keenan."

Hearing information mixed with crying sounds from his right side, Aquila began to write a few words on the notebook: "Sean Kentaro", "Call before the accident", "Karen Aldrich Hospital". Aquila accepted all the words that had been spoken by the students as information that could be used in kÎdnapping plan of Keenan.

No one in the class knew that an Interior Design first year student had hidden the whereabouts of a person who was being reported dead in various media. Aquila Sovereign, a student who was known to be a nerd because she rarely socialized with her college friends, was keeping an undisclosed secret about Keenan Aldrich. The secret that Keenan Aldrich was not actually dead.

Aquila's face looked very flat when she had heard of the death of Keenan Aldrich. Even the friend who was now sitting beside Aquila thought that Aquila hated Keenan for not showing any empathy at all. Although Aquila's face usually didn't show much expression either, she couldn't react to the fake news that had been arranged. Not only information about Keenan being alive, even Aquila also knew that Keenan was not injured at all because she was at the scene last night.

The kÎdnapping of Keenan Aldrich last night in Silentfield Village had gone quite smoothly. At the planned time Aquila had been alone in a car parked in the middle of the road to hold Keenan's car that had been predicted to come. Meanwhile, Pygmy, Mateo and Zack had been in the forest and preparing to ambush Keenan. Keenan's car had come and had hit the tree beside the car where Aquila had been. Aquila had gone out of the car and had knocked on Keenan's car door as if asking the people inside to get out and then had hidden behind Keenan's car.

When Keenan had gone out of the car, Mateo had ambushed Keenan and had knocked him unconscious. After Keenan had been put into the car brought by Aquila, Pygmy, Mateo and Zack had put some jerry cans of gasoline into Keenan's car. Then Zack had taken Keenan's car up to a road whose edge was a cliff. A place not far from the actual accident scene that had been determined from the start.

After being convinced that Keenan's car had fallen from a cliff and had caught fire, Zack had gotten into the car driven by Aquila. Then Aquila had followed the road between the forests that had been passed before so that the car had escaped the CCTV reach.

Actually, the kÎdnapping of Keenan could be considered a success by Aquila as the leader of the kÎdnapping. But Aquila has not been able to forget the annoyance she had experienced along the way while in the forest. Because Zack repeatedly had misread the compass when Aquila had been trying to find a way in the forest and Pygmy had kept complaining about the internet signal not reaching the forest.

Bringing a Jeep in bad road conditions was not the first time for Aquila. But listening to his two friends fighting each other had made the fatigue experienced by Aquila multiplied and still had an effect even though it had been a day. While listening to information about Keenan Aldrich's death from a classmate today, Aquila repeatedly stretched her body due to aches and yawned every five minutes.

"Looks like I can get some sleep before visiting that place," Aquila said to herself as she yawned for the tenth time that afternoon.

The courses that Aquila took in the afternoon had finished. After saying goodbye to the friend sitting next to her, Aquila immediately descended the stairs of the lecture theatre seating to quickly find a place to rest. Before leaving the class, Aquila looked up at the highest seat in the class, where the students were still talking about the same news topic.

One of the students whose face looked swollen looked at Aquila but immediately looked away. Aquila just smiled a little at the impact of last night's event on those around her. Then she thanked for all the information she had received from a group of students who were affected by the manipulation of Keenan Aldrich's death.